This blog is part of a podcast series following one Minnesota farmer through a season of strip-till. Listen to the full audio episode by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

A strong southerly wind blows across the prairie in western Minnesota’s Lac Qui Parle County as Ed Hegland’s Gleaner combine gobbles up rows of ripened soybeans. The combination of strong winds, dry air, and sunshine is ideal for crop dry down.

Farmers like Hegland don’t let perfect harvest days like this go to waste.

“I’ve gotten just about 400 acres done so I’m moving along,” Hegland says. “I’ve got about 900 acres of soybeans this year so I’ve got about 40 percent done. About 320 acres got the hail, so that’s got a few weeks to try and mature. So far the yield has been a fair amount above average and very uniform.”

This blog is part of a podcast series following one Minnesota farmer through a season of strip-till. Listen to the full audio episode by scrolling to bottom of post.

When fall harvest and tillage kick into high gear, the last thing farmers want is down time. Ed Hegland is taking precautions to avoid unproductive down time by having Environmental Tillage Systems product support manager Kevin Kuehn conduct a thorough inspection of his SoilWarrior to make sure everything is in peak condition when it’s time to roll.

“I just think it’s very important because they know exactly what they’re looking for,” Hegland says. “I’ve inspected it myself and cleaned it up this spring after using it, but he’s finding some fertilizer packed into spots I didn’t even know existed. It’s really helpful to have someone with that experience come and be able to do that.”

The dog-days of summer are a time when crops undergo dramatic changes. On Ed Hegland’s farm in Minnesota’s Lac Qui Parle County, his zone-tilled corn and soybeans took advantage of warm temperatures and ample rainfall during July and early August to develop into healthy, lush crops that are setting pods and forming ears. That is with the exception of about half of his corn and more than a third of his soybeans that were hit with hail earlier in the season.

This blog is part of a podcast series following one Minnesota farmer through a season of strip-till. Listen to the full audio episode by scrolling to the bottom.

For farmers like Ed Hegland, experience is a good teacher. He’s been strip-tilling his Lac Qui Parle County corn acres since 2008 and his soybeans since 2012. Since the goal of farming is productivity while caring for the land, Hegland doesn’t go at it alone, but utilizes available expertise to get better at what he does.

This is the first blog post introducing a new podcast series that follows one Minnesota farmer through a season of strip-till. Scroll down to listen to the full audio episode.

Ed Hegland farms land that has been in his family since the 1940’s. The farm ground, on western Minnesota’s prairie south of Appleton, is rimmed with wetlands and marshes and borders Lac qui Parle Lake, near the headwaters of the Minnesota River. Ed raises corn, soybeans, and sometimes wheat. He’s also raising three young children with his wife Dawn.